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THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINIS 

TRATION OF A STATE'S I NSTITU- 

TIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION 

A STUDY HAVING SPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO THE STATE OF TEXAS 



BY 



ARTHUR LEFEVRE 

SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH 
OF 

ORGANIZATION FOR THE 

ENLARGEMENT BY THE STATE OF TEXAS OF ITS 

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION 

ENDOWED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 




AUSTIN, TEXAS 
Von Boeckmann-Jones Co., Printers and Bookbinders 

1912 






All bulletins published by the Organization for the 
Enlargement by the State of Texas of its Institutions 
of Higher Education are intended to stimulate critical 
thought. In order that correct conclusions may be 
reached the Board of Control would welcome care- 
fully considered communications discussing the prob- 
lems treated in such publications, or any other ques- 
tions concerning the State's work of education. 



D. 

UL 



of D. 

6 ,19 S 



THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF 

A STATE'S INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER 

EDUCATION 

A STUDY HAVING SPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO THE STATE OF TEXAS 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

Featukes of Organization for Which the State Legislature 

is Responsible 

I. Prerequisite Conceptions 1 

II. The Texas Institutions — A Better Remedy than Consoli- 
dation for Rivalries Before Legislatures — The Ques- 
tion of "Duplication" 5 

III. Inexpediency of a Central Board of Control 

— Historical Summary — The Only Needed Adjust- 
ment of the Texas System 9 

IV. State Normal Schools — Schools for Defectives 18 

V. Voluntary Co-operation — Timely Suggestions .--Appor- 
tionment of the Tax; Co-operation by Federal Gov- 
ment;-with Colleges ;- with Theological Seminaries ;- 
by Individual Citizens. . . 27 

PART II 

Internal Organization and Administration 
I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 



THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF 

A STATE'S INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER 

EDUCATION 

A STUDY HAVING SPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO THE STATE OF TEXAS 



PART I 

FEATURES OF ORGANIZATION FOR WHICH THE STATE 
LEGISLATURE IS RESPONSIBLE 

I. PEEEEQUISITE CONCEPTIONS 

In a previous study, published March 28, 1912, the present 
"writer offered the first results of his endeavors to fulfill the duties 
and opportunities of "Secretary for Research" for the Organiza- 
tion he has the honor of serving. That investigation, entitled "A 
Study of the Financial Basis of the State Universities and Agri- 
cultural Colleges in Fourteen States," contributed, as its main 
object, a reliable practical calculation of the amount of money 
that must be supplied annually by the State of Texas for the sup- 
port of its three institutions of higher education, if the people of 
this State desire to secure for themselves the average serviceable- 
ness of the corresponding institutions "in all the States that have 
seriously undertaken to secure efficient services from such insti- 
tutions." 

Of course, efficiency depends more upon the wisdom of persons 
than upon the financial basis, but it was not possible in a statis- 
tical discussion to take the wisdom factor into account. The 
present study enters the domain of judgments based upon prin- 
ciples and practical experience, as distinguished from calculations 
based upon statistics, yet even here it is possible only to consider 
arrangements conducive to good results. In the ultimate execu- 
tion of any design it is the individual that counts. We are prone 
to put too much faith in systems, and look too little to men. 
Still, a bad system of organization demoralizes the co-operative 



2 PREREQUISITE CONCEPTION'S 

spirit of the group and leads to the selection of weak or bad in- 
dividuals. 

It is needful — today in America — to pause at the outset of 
any serious discussion either of organization or administration, by 
a man who does not share the prevalent notion that organization 
and administration mean the same thing, to explain the very ideas 
to be invoked by the words. It is the confusion of those ideas, 
and not "education" that is really "the great American super- 
stition." The misconception is manifested in almost every social 
or political movement. The desire to 'do things' is seldom di- 
rected by knowledge of the importance of accomplishing them 
through proper agencies. Or, only some nearest relation or par- 
ticular consequence of a measure is regarded, and its distant con- 
nections or permanent tendencies are ignored. Associated with 
the main misconception, in educational affairs, has been the 
notion that "executive ability" is a thing apart from and inde- 
pendent of masterful knowledge of the business in hand. Also, be- 
cause financiering combinations have been successfully adminis- 
tered without being truly organized, it has been supposed that 
universities (and school systems) could be prospered in like man- 
ner. In this error it has been forgotten that a dividend was 
the simple object and criterion of success in the financiering com- 
bination; whereas a university should be a true organism, not a 
mere combination, and its parts can healthfully subsist only in an 
atmosphere of confidence and fellowship and through spontaneous 
mutual service. 

In an organism it is not sufficient that there should be a sepa- 
rate agency for discharging every essential function, nor is the 
right idea completed by adding the conception of the proper 
autonomy of each organ. Genuine organization requires, besides 
both of those characteristics, that every organ should sympathize 
and co-operate with every other organ. The administrative organ 
of the entire organism can not fully or rightly discharge its func- 
tion unless that condition exists. 



PREREQUISITE CONCEPTIONS 3 

If disorganization has occurred at any other point, the admin- 
istrative function strives to restore the local responsibility and the 
general harmony; but in the wise order of nature administration 
is not conceived as begun with respect to any such deranged part 
until both its local responsibility and the general harmony have 
been restored — that is to say, until it has been organized again. 
On the other hand, if a university or college president acts as an 
autocrat usurping or inhibiting functions not his own, or if all 
within the sphere of his administration can not depend upon his 
competency and courage and on his abselute fidelity in transmit- 
ting the communications from part to part made through him 
and on the complete truthfulness of his statements to any part 
concerning another part, — then such a university, however busily 
administered, is disorganized at its most vital point; and its con- 
dition is,- in the strict sense of the word, insane, and comparable 
to the condition of a body administered by a brain whose reports, 
messages, and commands are faithless, conflicting, founded in 
vain conceits. 

Disorganization of a different sort, but equally injurious, ensues, 
if a governing board transgresses its proper legislative function. 
Supreme power of every kind, subject only to the law of the land, 
is necessarily vested in the governing board; but nothing short of 
an incurable state of insurrection could justify the assumption of 
administrative functions normally committed to the executive offi- 
cer of the board and to the faculty. The condition is comparable 
to the suspension of a country's regular laws and the proclama- 
tion of martial law. Any overstepping of the bounds of its proper 
function should be recognized as a last recourse by the governing 
board of an educational institution. Such a remedy is applicable 
only to a desperate disorder, because the remedy would be worse 
than the disease in any case less than desperate. 

Worst of all may be the disorganization superinduced by im- 
proper exercise of power by a state legislature. Such disorgan- 
ization is absolute and permanent, and without remedy until the 



4 PREREQUISITE CONCEPTIONS 

institution involved is, as it were, refounded by another legisla- 
ture. There is, indeed, truth in the Greek maxim, "No law is a 
good law unless it is has good executors" ; but Commissioner Draper, 
of the State of New York, speaks out of an abundance of experi- 
ence and observation when he says : "Troubles in administration 
[of educational institutions] seldom come from the presence of 
vicious characters; they arise from a confusion of powers and pre- 
rogatives, and from a disposition which men seem to have to direct 
matters the most about which they know the least. When powers 
are based upon principles the troubles will largely disappear." 
The fundamental principle for the case in question, is that the 
legislature ought never to infringe upon the sphere of adminis- 
tration. It is the part of the legislature to create a governing 
body for the institution, in the way which seems to it best calcu- 
lated to secure the most competent and faithful executors of the 
State's general purpose. Such an organ having been created, to 
it should be committed the government and control of the insti- 
tution. It is the function of the board of control to govern the 
institution, and to supervise the administration of all its enter- 
prises in accordance with a soundly organized procedure. The 
legislature, of course, retains a regulative power which, normally, 
ought to be exercised only in its decisions concerning appropria- 
tions of money in addition to the proceeds of an established tax, 
for new developments recommended by the executive board. 



II. THE TEXAS INSTITUTIONS 

The scope of the study here presented must be limited by its 
immediate reference to the existing state institutions of higher 
education in the State of Texas. It would be superfluous to in- 
clude modifications of organization applicable only to the private 
corporations of endowed or denominational institutions. The in- 
dividual permanence and autonomy of the three institutions al- 
ready established by the State of Texas — University of Texas, 
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, State College for 
Women — might, without rashness, be assumed; but it will be 
advantageous to consider the question thoroughly. 

All the arguments advanced in favor of combining two or more 
state institutions of higher education in one university, or in 
favor of one central board of control for separate institutions, 
reduce to two: (1) duplication of work, and (2) injurious rivalry 
before legislatures in ever-recurring scrambles for appropriations. 

The second argument refers to a serious evil in many States; 
and, if there were no other remedy for the evil, decisive weight 
might attach to this argument in spite of many valid objections. 
But there is a better and unobjectionable remedy for the evil. A 
state tax for the institutions of higher education, definitely ap- 
portioned between them by the law levying the tax, would remove 
entirely the ground of the argument in question. This is the only 
right arrangement for applying the state's support, and it also 
represents the best practice. It is remarkable that this effective 
remedy seems not to suggest itself to advocates of concentration 
or of central boards. 

There remains the argument founded on duplication of work. 
My study of many published discussions of the question has not dis- 
covered a single attempt to estimate the extra cost of "duplica- 
tion." Even as strong a man as President Van Hise contents 



6 THE QUESTION" OF DUPLICATION 

himself with assuming that duplication causes such waste that 
separate institutions must be consolidated, or that the objectionable 
central boards "are inevitable/' In my judgment the case is by 
no means so bad or so hopeless. Speaking of a separate univer- 
sity and agricultural college, it is exclaimed, "Each of these in- 
stitutions must have a department of physics and a department of 
chemistry/' also that there must be "in each studies in English 
and economics, French and German." Such exclamations are not 
arguments. In cases where each institution has overcrowded labora- 
tories and insufficient teaching force, how would the cost be mate- 
rially reduced by removing to one of them the students at the other ? 
Certain administrative and overhead expenses are indeed dupli- 
cated; but they are not sufficient in amount to compel a reckless 
ignoring of strong affirmative reasons, where such exist, for the 
continuance of deeply-rooted historical developments. Enormous 
size does not make an institution great, neither does it insure 
economy, or efficiency, or desirable progress. 

President Van Hise opened his address to the National Associa- 
tion of State Universities, at Minneapolis in October, 1911, by 
saying: "So far as I know, there is a general consensus of opin- 
ion among educators that it is advantageous to make a single uni- 
versity for a given State. The separation of a part of higher 
education into a university, another part into an agricultural and 
mechanical college, another into a school of mines necessarily re- 
sults in duplication." Everything implied in this statement, ex- 
cept the fact of "duplication," may be questioned, as was point- 
edly developed in the discussion that followed. One of the speak- 
ers (the president of a State university whose experience includes 
eight years' service as the president of an agricultural college) 
differed diametrically, holding : "It would be to the disadvantage 
of the agricultural interests of the country if all agricultural col- 
leges were made parts of the State universities." Referring to a 
particular institution, he was of the opinion that it did "more 
for the particular purpose for which it was instituted by very 



THE QUESTION" OF DUPLICATION" 7 

reason of its separate existence." But it might be granted that, 
abstractly, or as an original design, one comprehensive university 
should be preferred to more than one institution, yet it would not 
follow that several established institutions ought always to be re- 
duced to one. 

Texas may well, determine that no "School of Mines," or any 
new department, shall henceforth be established as a separate in- 
stitution; but it may also rest contented with the historical de- 
velopments which have created its State University, A. and M. 
College, and State College for Women. The question of dupli- 
cation would become serious for such institutions only at the 
stage of graduate departments, and in the case of certain techni- 
cal branches that require very costly equipment. No school of 
mines, for instance, ought to be duplicated in them. Graduate 
departments in the full sense have not yet come into existence in 
Texas. The necessary means for graduate work, such as would 
justify advanced students in seeking in this State the specialist's 
degree (the doctorate), have never yet been provided. When such 
developments are made possible for the University of Texas, there 
should be little danger of wasteful duplication in the other state 
institutions. If the scramble before each Legislature to continue 
a precarious existence is replaced by a state tax, the proceeds of 
which are apportioned by law, rational hopes may be cherished 
that the separate institutions will be administered so that the cost 
will not be seriously increased by duplication, and that mutual 
stimulation will conduce to a steadily improving service. In the 
second part of this study (treating of internal organization and 
administration) will be indicated far more wasteful application of 
teaching force than could be involved in duplicated undergraduate 
work of two institutions. 

Finally, while duplication beyond undergraduate work is gen- 
erally to be avoided by state institutions, in regard to others it 
should be understood that even total duplication is often consistent 
with true economy and with thoroughly wholesome conditions. The 



8 THE QUESTION OF DUPLICATION 

establishment of Leland Stanford undoubtedly helped the Univer- 
sity of California immeasurably, and the University of Chicago 
still more definitely and effectively assisted the University of Illi- 
nois. The president of the University of Illinois himself testified 
last July in an address before the National Education Associa- 
tion, that the "foundation of the University of Chicago, by the 
bold and striking way in which it raised high aloft the stand- 
ard of science, gave an impetus to the university idea which made 
the work of [all the surrounding universities] more adequate and 
more easy." It is a matter of high congratulation for the people 
of Texas that the Rice Institute of Literature, Science, and Art 
is going to "duplicate" many of the undertakings of our State 
institutions. The Johns Hopkins University with half the endow- 
ment of the Rice Institute caused a great uplift in every impor- 
tant institution of learning in the United States. Although no 
such unique opportunity is open to the Rice Institute, its un- 
trammeled self-government, and the comprehensive views and 
lofty ideals and practical purposes already indicated by its man- 
agement, constitute very valid grounds of hope that the parallel 
activities of this new institution will in due time prove to be most 
beneficial to all other enterprises for higher education in Texas. 



There is a matter that ought never to be confused with the 
question we have briefly discussed, which I shall not take up in 
this study at all. It is so special, and in some States so impor- 
tant, that it should be treated in a study devoted to it alone. I 
refer to cases in which some "school" of a university, such as its 
school of medicine, and the main body of the university are situ- 
ated in different localities. It may be remarked in passing, how- 
ever, that the idea and practice recently wrought out by the Uni- 
versity of Michigan offer to any one desirous of studying the or- 
ganization and conduct of university schools of medicine the most 
significant lessons to be found in this country. 



III. INEXPEDIENCY OF A CENTRAL BOARD OF 

CONTROL 

Logically, the notion of a central board of control has been dis- 
posed of by showing that duplication of undergraduate studies in 
separate institutions is not injurious and may be advantageous, 
and by pointing to a better and surer remedy for the evil of in- 
cessant rivalries before legislatures. Nevertheless, it will be ad- 
vantageous to discuss directly the subject of a central board, if 
only because logic is generally ignored by persons who are ever 
ready to propose some act of a legislature as a cure for every 
difficulty. 

Respectable advocates of a central board of control all see great 
evil and greater risk in such a board, but they deem it a lesser 
evil than "duplication" and "rivalry before legislatures." Such 
is the attitude of President Van Hise, whose paper upon the sub- 
ject, already referred to, comprises everything that could be found 
in less vigorous discussions favoring a central board of control. He 
considers the dangerous central board inevitable unless university 
and agricultural college are united in one university, or overlap- 
ping is kept at a minimum. Like everyone else, he has only two 
arguments. Those arguments, having been dealt with, the gloomy 
prophecies based upon them fall with their foundations. If the 
"rivalry" argument be removed by an automatic division of a 
state tax, it is difficult to conceive how a vague objection to 
"duplication" could be deemed more weighty than the downright 
objections to a central board which he himself indicates, to say 
nothing of others that exist. 

The following objections are acknowledged by President Van 
Hise: 

"If there be a central board which is to govern several institutions at 
different localities, it will be impossible to get the best men of a State 
to give sufficient time to master the details in reference to them. (They 



10 OBJECTIONS TO CENTRAL BOARDS 

would be unwilling to take a position involving responsibility for several 
institutions at different localities.) Further, if compensation be offered, 
the fact that the service is not free will make men of the highest type 
reluctant to take positions on such boards. To illustrate: at the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, for many years, we had the services of Colonel 
William F. Vilas. No cash estimate of the value of this service can be 
made. The larger part of his estate will also finally go to the uni- 
versity. Nothing could have induced Colonel Vilas to accept the place of 
regent with compensation. If compensation of a board be small, it will 
be composed of inferior men; if it be large, places on the board will be 
sought by unfit men, and it will be extremely difficult to fill the positions 
without political interference." 

"A difficulty with central boards, which has appeared as a result of 
experience, is (that some of the men are interested in one institution and 
others in another; and this has led to trading back and forth in grants 
to the different institutions." 

"It is possible in such a board to have the special friends and cham- 
pions of each of the institutions, and then you have the same collisions 
and collusion of interest that you have in a city council or other bodies 
of similar character." 

"Another difficulty with central boards created at one time is that a 
break is thus made in the continuity of the government of an institution. 
The recognized aims and practices which have grown up through many 
years are likely to be ignored by a new board having no knowledge of or 
experience with the several institutions which they are to govern." 

"It is not wise to separate educational and financial control. . . . 
Iowa has attempted to meet difficulties by creating a non-paid central 
board, and outside of this board a finance committee of three, which in 
large measure administers the institutions under the general principles 
laid down by the board. Under this plan a finance committee may be 
advantageous where a central board is inevitable, but undoubtedly there 
are grave dangers in such a committee; for whenever there is a financial 
board giving full time to the administration of educational affairs there 
is a constant tendency for them to take the initiative in reference to 
policies, and to supervise and circumscribe the faculty in their educa- 
tional work in a manner which is wholly unwarranted, and is contrary 
to the best interests of higher education." 

"An additional difficulty, as shown by experience, is that there is a 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY 11 

tendency in a central board to place the normal school in the same posi- 
tion of dignity as the university." [This refers to the practice in sev- 
eral States of putting totally disparate institutions under one board. 
The limit of that mistake is reached when university, agricultural col- 
lege, normal schools, schools for blind, deaf, and feeble-minded, and 
reform schools are put under one board.] 

Historical Summary 

The States that have had any experience with central boards of 
control are Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Okla- 
homa, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia. Their practices, in 
my judgment, represent the worst possible devices. The opinions 
of men dependent upon the central boards are conflicting, but the 
short histories reveal only warning examples. The vagaries of 
rash legislation in the respective States are summarized as follows : 

Florida. — Bad conditions called for some remedy, and doubtless some of 
the institutions ought to have been abolished. All existing institutions 
were abolished, and a state university including normal school for men, 
a State College for Women, an A. and M. College for Negroes, a Normal 
Colored School, and an Institution for Blind, Deaf, and Dumb were 
established. The permanent arrangement for the government of these 
institutions is perhaps the worst that could be devised. One board of 
control was put over them all, of five members, none to be appointed 
from any county in which any of the institutions is located; but this 
board was made "at all times under and subject to the control and 
supervision of the State Board of Education." The latter consists of 
Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, and 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Although a sovereign State 
has committed this act, the mere statement of its provisions sufficiently 
exposes its errors. Satisfaction with 'the enlargement of the university 
resulting from the abolishment of several weak and low-grade colleges 
may blind some eyes to impending evils; but the strife, and the dead- 
lock over the election of the president of the university, already experi- 
enced, are but foretastes of worse evils yet to come. For details the 
reader is referred to President Pritehett's fourth annual report to the 
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

Georgia. — All institutions (white and negro) including normal schools 



12 HISTORICAL SUMMARY 

are branches of the university, and under a board consisting of the trus- 
tees of the University of Georgia, the presidents of each institution con- 
cerned (except the university), the Governor, and George Foster Pea- 
body. There is no need of the Chancellor's testimony that "the method 
of government involves many difficulties." 

Iowa. — In 1909 a law was enacted which put the University of Iowa, 
A. and M. College, and State Teachers' College under a board composed 
of nine members, to be appointed by the governor. It is provided that 
not more than one alumnus of any institution concerned shall be on the 
board. The board appoints a finance committee of three, not members 
of the board, nor more than two from one political party, at a salary of 
$3500 a year and expenses. President Van Hise's just criticism of the 
last mentioned feature has been quoted. It may be noted (without prej- 
udice) that, during the first year of the board's authority, the president 
of the university, the president of the agricultural college, and the dean 
of the law school resigned. 

Mississippi. — In 1910 four institutions were put under one board of 
eight appointed by the Governor. 

Montana. — In 1909 all educational institutions, including orphans' 
home, school for deaf and blind, and a reform school, were put under a 
board of education of eleven members, eight appointed, three ex-oflicio. 
A subordinate local board of three members is provided at each institu- 
tion, one of whom is the president of the institution. The local board 
can not expend for a single purpose an amount exceeding $250. But 
there is a further complication: the ex-ofiicio members of the board of 
control (Governor, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion) constitute a separate and supreme board in all financial matters. 
President Van Hise judges that this Montana way shows "a larger num- 
ber of objectionable features than any other system." Recalling my own 
assignment of Florida to that bad eminence, I stand corrected. They are 
on a parity except that Montana adds the petty local boards, and also 
adds ia penal school and orphans' home to the school for blind and deaf 
and the other institutions. 

Oklahoma. — In 1911 the Legislature created a State Board of Education 
consisting of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and six other 
members serving without salary appointed by the Governor. The ex- 
officio member has his salary of $2500. Absurd as it may seem, this 
board is required to exercise exclusive supervision and control over the 
whole common school system (including duties of a State Text-Book 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY 13 

Board, and a board of examiners for issuing teachers' certificates ) , and 
over eighteen different institutions, viz., state university, two prepara- 
tory schools, school of mines, college for girls, six normal schools, agri- 
cultural and normal university for negroes, school for blind, school for 
deaf, school for feeble-minded, school for orphans, reform school, and an 
orphanage and school for defectives for negroes. The agricultural col- 
leges were not put under this board because the Constitution placed them 
uuder the State Board of Agriculture. The short but stormy history of 
this application of the central-board-of -control idea may be read in Presi- 
dent Pritchett's sixth annual report. The heads of six of the institu- 
tions, including the university, and more than half of the members of 
their faculties were summarily removed. Some removals were made 
against the advice of both the removed and the new presidents. The new 
appointees were chosen by the Board, without nomination by responsible 
administrative officers, from "applications" made directly to the board. 
It would be irrelevant to consider the merits or demerits of individuals 
involved. If it were granted that all persons dismissed were either in- 
jurious or inefficient, it is certainly incredible that the majority of the 
new appointments, derived as stated, could have been made wisely. Good 
intentions on the part of members of the board does not ameliorate the 
situation. The method of procedure was fatally wrong. The condition 
of the patient may have been very bad, but the intended remedy must 
prove worse than the disease. President Pritchett says of the situation: 
"No real university can exist under such conditions." President Van 
Hise says, that, for the present, "it would be extraordinary if any man 
of ability who has a fair place in another State should accept a position 
in any of the educational institutions in the State of Oklahoma." 

Oregon. — A board of four, appointed by the Governor, known as the 
Board of Higher Curricula, passes on all the courses offered at the uni- 
versity and at the agricultural college. It is in the power of this board 
to determine absolutely what work shall be given at each institution. 

South Dakota. — An appointed board of five members, salaries of $1000 
a year, govern the University, A. and M. College, School of Mines, and 
three normal schools. A number of difficulties have been experienced. 

West Virginia. — A board of regents, consisting of four appointed mem- 
bers with salaries of $1000 and the State Superintendent, was created 
in 1909 to govern the university, agricultural college, two preparatory 
schools, six normal schools, and two institutes for negroes. But the same 
act of the legislature created a board of control of three, appointed, 



14 HISTORICAL SUMMARY 

salaries $5000, to have full control of charitable and penal institutions, 
and also "control of the financial and business affairs" of the educational 
institutions. This control goes to the extent of approving salaries of the 
teaching force, or naming a total amount to be paid for instruction. The 
board of regents is required to meet with the board of control when the 
latter so desires. Every feature of this law violates fundamental prin- 
ciples. After its adoption the university president resigned, and one of 
the members of the board of control was put in his place. 

Kansas. — The Legislature of Kansas recently passed an act abolishing 
the boards of regents of the university, agricultural college, and normal 
schools, and creating one board of control of three members. The Gov- 
ernor vetoed the act. Chancellor Strong of the University of Kansas, 
writing in October, 1911, says: "Agitation over duplication led to the 
introduction into the last legislature of several bills. Some contained 
grotesque features. The bill [that was passed] provided for a board of 
control of three persons, to receive $2500 per year each, the board to 
elect, outside of its own number, an educational expert to act as its sec- 
retary, at the same salary. Each member was to give his entire time to 
the work of the board. . . . There were then serving upon the dif- 
ferent boards of regents some of the ablest men in the State, whose serv- 
ices could hardly have been secured at any price if one had attempted to 
hire them. The positions contemplated by the new bill were offered to 
several of these men and refused. The Governor was told that, while 
they would gladly serve the State for nothing on an honorary board, they 
could not under any circumstances accept a position like the one indi- 
cated. . . . The Governor took counsel by telegraph with many uni- 
versity administrators, who, almost without exception, advised against 
the bill. The grounds of objection were, in the main, first, that the 
provision for an educational expert as secretary would almost certainly 
interfere with the internal administration of the institutions, and pro- 
duce friction and inefficiency; secondly, that a salaried board, especially 
at the salaries indicated, would bring mediocre men . . . ; thirdly, 
that the method proposed would almost certainly invade the real person- 
ality of each institution, take away its fundamental and individual char- 
acteristics, and so deprive it of its real independence. . . . As it 
was expressed by one college administrator, the University of Kansas 
needs to keep its own soul as much as Harvard does. . . . The bill 
was vetoed." Vice-President Carruth summarized the history for the 
National Association of State Universities as follows: "We were threat- 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY 15 

ened last winter with what is known as the Keene bill. A board of 
control of three members at salaries of $2500, with an 'educational ex- 
expert' as secretary at the same salary, was to manage our state insti- 
tutions of higher education — to be placed over the heads of these insti- 
tutions, each of whom commands a salary of $6000. You can anticipate 
what the results would have been. But I want to say that the State of 
Kansas owes a debt to the members of this Association. Governor Stubbs 
sought advice from many of you; and the Governor deserves to be highly 
commended for seeking competent counsel and then following it. Your 
advice, together with the earnest protest of the chancellor of our State 
University, resulted in the vetoing of the bill and the saving of our State 
and university, for the present at least, from the threatened calamity." 

The Governor, before vetoing the bill, asked the board of regents of 
each institution whether, if he vetoed the Keene bill, they would volun- 
tarily organize the three boards into a commission, to consult on the 
general welfare and make recommendations to each separate board as 
might seem wise, authority still to lie in the separate boards. There is, 
therefore, in Kansas an extra-legal commission, of which the Governor 
is chairman, made up of all the members of three boards of regents. Its 
counsels have resulted in a uniform system of accounting and business 
management. Committees are working on various internal problems. 

President Van Hise says: "The most serious danger of a commission 
such as that of Kansas, composed of an equal number of representatives 
from each board, is that several weaker institutions may unite against a 
stronger one and so prevent its growth. . . . Each having equal 
representation upon the commission, the representatives of the institu- 
tions other than the university may unite and unduly limit the scope of 
the university; not only so, but they may recommend more than propor- 
tional support for the weaker institutions, and aim to make them the 
equals of the university." This is certainly wise foresight, and many 
other evil contingencies are equally foreseeable. It is, therefore, sur- 
prising that the same writer should conclude his remarks by saying: 
"If it works out that the recommendations of the commission are rea- 
sonably respected by the different boards, the natural step would be to 
legalize the commission and give its actions the sanction of law." I 
understand him to use "natural" in a commendatory sense; but, in my 
judgment, the statement that such a step is the natural course, is to 
assert that only folly is to be expected of state legislatures. Voluntary 
consultation and co-operation is always desirable. It is undoubtedly the 



16 HISTORICAL SUMMARY 

proper course, especially upon certain occasions. But why, — in the name 
of sober intelligence, — if voluntary consultation works well, should it be 
"natural" to replace it by compulsory subjection to a joint commission, 
or any other sort of central control? 

Minnesota. — There is only one comprehensive state institution of 
higher education in Minnesota, and the question of a central board of 
control could not arise. Yet that State has had an experience which is 
both interesting and encouraging, in its bearing on the question of a 
dual control of any one institution. In 1901 a board of control was put 
over the regents of the university in all financial transactions. The 
regents resisted for two years, but their attempt to relieve the univer- 
sity failing in 1903, they became subject to the board of control. "After 
two years' trial, conditions were such as to make further continuation 
of the arrangement wholly intolerable." In 1905 the legislature, by a 
nearly unanimous vote, gave the long sought relief. One bad consequence 
of the original mistake of 1901 remains. In the placing of insurance, 
purchase of fuel, and erection of buildings the board of regents still 
remains subject to another state board. The legal theory that the board 
of regents is incompetent or untrustworthy for buying insurance and 
fuel, is irritating; but those matters are so petty that they could not 
cause directly any serious misgovernment. New buildings, on the con- 
trary, are important affairs, and are so intimately connected with the 
educational work for which the institution is conducted that a separate 
government of that matter must have many injurious consequences. 

The preceding paragraphs have briefly summarized all experi- 
ence with central boards of control. President Van Hise admits 
that the experience has not been encouraging. I understand that 
his own preference, where consolidation in one institution is not 
practicable, is for co-operation through "a commission composed 
of representatives of each of the institutional boards." But his 
conclusion is that, where consolidation is not practicable, it is so 
"necessary to have sharp delimitation of scopes (to avoid over- 
lapping), and co-operation in financial requests to the legisla- 
ture," that "if co-operation be not successful, central boards are 
inevitable." 

We are left to marvel why so bad an end is inevitable, even if 



NEEDED ADJUSTMENT 17 

living, thriving institutions refuse to give up their separate exist- 
ence and continue to duplicate or parallel some of the teaching 
that is done in a university. Is it to be supposed that everywhere 
men will see those evils of a central board of control which Presi- 
dent Van Hise himself mentions, not to mention many others, 
only to forget them? Will "duplication" or "overlapping" seem 
such a horrible idea to everyone, or a little extra expense appear 
so fearsome, that, to escape them, the known evils of a central 
board will be embraced? 

If duplication were truly an essentially bad and wasteful thing, 
the only wise course would be to abolish our A. and M. College 
and College for Girls and confine the State's higher educational 
work in one university. Happily, no one need think so ill of 
"duplication" or even of "overlapping." In no event, it seems to me, 
would it be wise either to abolish our properly independent boards 
of regents, or to subordinate them to a superior board of control. 
There is no need to add to the reasons already stated, to show the 
inexpediency of a central board, either with or without inferior 
boards; but concerning the latter I may add one important con- 
sideration, not yet mentioned, to wit : desirable men would, in gen- 
eral, refuse to serve on the subordinate boards. 

The only needed adjustment of the established organization of 
the independent governing boards of the three Texas institutions 
concerns the two-years term of office of regent and the simultane- 
ous expiration of the terms of all the members of each board. A 
constitutional amendment permitting thorough correction of those 
defects has been already submitted to the people and will be voted 
on in the approaching general election. If the pending amend- 
ment to the Constitution is adopted, and if the legislature fol- 
lows it by fixing the terms of office at six years, one-third of the 
members of each board to be appointed every two years, Texas 
may well rest satisfied with its present system of governing boards 
for its state institutions of higher education. 



IV. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

The importance of the enormous work of preparing, as well as 
may be, teachers for the common schools could hardly be over- 
estimated; but there is especial need at the present time to con- 
sider the question calmly and with discriminating knowledge. 
State normal schools have a peculiar purpose, which is carried out 
best under a distinct organization. In government they ought 
never to be combined with universities and advanced schools of 
technology. Like all other institutions, they should never be 
governed by ex-offieio boards; but several state normal schools 
may, with some practical advantages, be put under one board of 
control. Only those who do not understand educational work in its 
different spheres will confuse this case with that of universities 
and agricultural colleges. In the case of normal schools it is for 
the very reason that "duplication" is thoroughgoing, that one 
board of control for all of them may be advantageous. A wise 
board will never impose or admire exact uniformity; but will en- 
courage spontaneous variations suitable to local conditions or to 
different faculties. Yet the main purpose of the normal schools 
is so special and so identical for all, and the policy of the State 
to deal with them on a parity is so fixed, that the superior chances 
of improvement through free variation under separate boards, may 
properly be sacrificed to the simplicity and harmony attainable 
through one governing board. 

Until recently the state normal schools of Texas were governed 
by an ex-officio board of three members. In 1904 the present 
writer, in his biennial report as State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, advised the Legislature: "It is unwise to burden the 
Governor, Comptroller, and Secretary of State with the detailed 
executive control of the state normal schools. The public inter- 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 19 

ests would be subserved by the enactment of a law directing the 
Governor to appoint a normal school board of five members to 
manage and control the state normal schools, whose terms of office 
ought to be the maximum allowed by the Constitution." Six 
years passed before that progressive step was taken by the First 
Called Session of the Thirty-second Legislature. The present 
"State Normal School Board of Begents," however, consists of 
four appointed members and the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. It would, of course, have been wiser to have pro- 
vided that all of the regents should be appointed; but the Texas 
boards are now freer from ex-officio members (the only other in- 
stance being the Commissioner of Agriculture on the Board of 
Directors of the A. and M. College) than is the case in the ma- 
jority of the States. In such matters it is usually advisable to 
'let well enough alone.' The pending amendment to the Con- 
stitution, already mentioned, covers all the "educational, eleemosy- 
nary, and penal institutions of the State." If that amendment is 
adopted, and the Legislature puts it into effect by lengthening t& 
term of office of the regents or trustees of all the State institu- 
tions to six years, one-third of the members of each board to be 
appointed every two years, there will remain no serious defect in 
the organization of any of the governing boards. 

It has been the simultaneous expiration of the terms of all 
members of the boards which in theory have governed the schools 
for defectives and penal institutions, that has in fact, in the past, 
precipitated those institutions into the arena of political office-seek- 
ing, and put upon the governors of the State the burden of their 
patronage. Such complications would be obviated by the appoint- 
ment every two years of only one-third of the members of the 
boards in question. Those boards would forthwith acquire the 
dignity and independent responsibility of the regents of the higher 
educational institutions, and succeeding governors of the State 
would be relieved of a burden hitherto imposed upon them b} r an 
evil custom. 



20 STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

It is not within the scope of this study to deal with the in- 
ternal organization or work of normal schools; but there is one 
question concerning their correlation with universities, which needs 
to he made clear. The question is of great importance every- 
where, and, from it, at the present juncture in Texas, might arise 
a crisis involving the whole future of the State's educational en- 
terprises. A strong movement is afoot among us for the uplift- 
ing and expansion of educational institutions of every sort. It 
behooves all upon whom responsibility rests, or who assume re- 
sponsibility for the definite measures that must finally express the 
vision and enthusiasm of the movement, to attain clear views of 
both means and ends. 

A tendency has appeared in several states (e. g., Illinois, Kan- 
sas, Colorado) to turn their normal schools into colleges grant- 
ing degrees. Simultaneously many universities, including nearly 
all flourishing state universities, have established departments or 
schools of education. The University of Texas organized its "De- 
partment of Education"* in 1907, and it has been standardized by 
its present admission requirement of two years (ten courses) in 
the College of Arts. 

If the state normal schools were to be transformed into col- 
leges, there would ensue a double duplication between each of the 
normal colleges and the university which would truly be extrava- 
gant if the work were honestly performed, or be a dishonest travesty 
if the transformation were only 'on paper.' There is almost 
unanimity of expert opinion that any attempt to> transform state 
normal schools into colleges is "most unfortunate." In discus- 
sions of the question by the National Association I find only one 
dissenting voice, and that dissent arose, apparently, through the 
confusion of two questions, the second being whether high school 



*The nomenclature adopted by the National Association of State Uni- 
versities would employ the term School of Education. For the defini- 
tions of several such terms see page — ?. 



CORRELATION WITH COLLEGES 21 

teachers ought always to be college graduates. It came, more- 
over, from one of the state universities of Ohio, a state in which 
conditions are confusing for any comparison with other states. 
Ohio maintains three state universities, Ohio University, Miami 
University, and the Ohio State University. About ten years ago 
it was deemed expedient to largely specialize two of those insti- 
tutions by establishing a high class "normal college" at Ohio 
University and another at Miami University, in addition to sev- 
eral ordinary state normal schools. Evidently these normal col- 
leges in Ohio are analogous rather to the School of Education of 
the usual state university than to the usual type of state normal 
schools. 

The third year of college teaching demands for its various 
departments a large staff of men of high rank. There begins 
the work of the college which advances to the expensive stage. 
The accordant correlation of the normal school and the university 
seems clear. Under favorable circumstances (primarily dependent 
upon adequate appropriations) the state normal schools might be 
advantageously expanded so as to cover the first two years of the 
college, If that expansion is established, the courses in profes- 
sional training should be made optional in the normal schools, so 
that students might transfer from the state normals to the univer- 
sity, and obtain a degree in the latter in two more years. The 
number of students in the normals would be so increased, that the 
faculties of those schools would be adequately strengthened. The 
work of the first two college years might thus be suitably per- 
formed by the State at several points. The expense would prob- 
ably be less than if all such instruction were concentrated in the 
university, — certainly less to the students concerned, if not to the 
State. There may be, also, some freshmen and sophomore stu- 
dents who might, for other than economic reasons, better get the 
first two years of the college course in the smaller schools, than 
in the university. 

As far as I have been able to learn, only one state has expressed 



22 CORRELATION WITH COLLEGES 

this principle in a law. Wisconsin's legislature last year enacted 
the following law : "The board of normal school regents may ex- 
tend the course of instruction in any normal school so that any 
course, the admission to which is based upon graduation from an 
accredited high school or its equivalent, may include the substan- 
tial equivalent of the instruction given in the first two years of 
a college course. Such course of instruction shall not be extended 
further than the substantial equivalent of the instruction given in 
the first two years of such college course without the consent of 
the legislature."' That act of the legislature was accompanied 
by a large increase of appropriations for the normal schools, in 
order that they might have the necessary means to do effectively 
the first two years of college work. The regents of the Wisconsin 
normal schools have announced that "professional studies" will no 
longer be required of all students, and that they will hereafter 
conduct two full years of college work, as well as the professional 
curriculum. 

It should ever be borne in mind that any provision for, or per- 
mission of such expansion of the state normal schools, ought to 
be coupled with an absolute delimitation at the same point. If 
the question ever arises in Texas, the permissive act of the Wis- 
consin legislature is a good model. Of course, the question ought 
never to arise until the normal schools can require high school 
graduation for admission to the new two-years curriculum, and 
until their financial basis enables them to get proper faculties for 
such work. At present, the Texas state normal school merely 
qualifies its graduates for entrance to the university with a credit 
of one course of freshman work. Their teachers are paid no more 
than the better sort of high school teachers. 

Both the normal schools and the universities are confronted 
today by an acute need for energetic and wise endeavors on their 
part to provide a greatly improved preparation of teachers for all 
stages of the public schools. For the secondary or high school 



PREPARATION" OF TEACHERS 23 

stage the work must for a long time be shared by normal school 
and university. The best high schools are already demanding a 
full college course as a minimum of preparation in their teachers. 
Books on the subject like Professor Luckey's and reports of 
committees of the National Education Association indicate but a 
small part of a public demand that is growing threatening. On 
the other hand, the weaker schools must not be neglected. Also, 
there is critical need for teachers especially prepared for the high 
schools and semi-high schools of the villages and rural districts. 
That need ought to have been felt and seen by normal school 
authorities sooner and more clearly than by anyone else; but — 
speaking of the entire country — they still seem even deaf to a 
veritable outcry from all other quarters. Petty courses in "agri- 
culture" have been offered, but a far better response than that is 
required. Entirely reformed programs of school studies, vitally 
organized for their purpose, are demanded for our vast expanses 
of rural life. Such programs should be provided by thinkers of 
large ability and ripe experience, and the normal schools should 
then prepare legions of teachers to make the new order of rural 
schools a beneficent reality. The existing conditions in every 
field call for earnest and unselfish efforts to establish an effective 
correlation, which will make the best use of all resources. 

To meet the needs and the demands successfully, more than 
internal arrangements for improved work in the normal schools 
and universities will be necessary. The enterprise is so enormous 
and so complex that the local authorities in charge of public 
school systems, and States through their legislatures must co- 
operate with the institutions preparing the teachers. On the 
part of the local school systems, organization and administra- 
tion must be reformed upon sound principles, to the end that 
the best available teachers shall be elected and retained. There 
are (and there will be an increasing number of them) men 
and women who will not scramble for such positions, but who 
could fill them capably. Local governing boards must act within 



24 PREPARATION OP TEACHERS 

their proper sphere. The necessary authority must be conferred 
upon superintendents and the corresponding responsibility be im- 
posed. If the superintendent does not meet his responsibility 
faithfully and successfully, he must be removed, but the board 
should never assume his function of administration. On the part 
of the state legislatures, the essential need is for laws providing 
adequate support without special appropriations, — except for some 
large, occasional need, such as grounds or buildings. Beyond this, 
the Wisconsin law, quoted above, represents the only other legis- 
lative co-operation that is needed when it is also timely. 

This nation has staked almost its existence on public educa- 
tion. The following words of Commissioner Draper are not ex- 
aggerated: "The great aim of the public school system is to hold 
us together, to secure the safety of a wide-open suffrage, and to 
assure the progress of the whole population. The public school 
system is our protection. In the light of the world's experience 
our experiment in government is a vast undertaking. History 
does not record a similar experiment which has been permanently 
successful. The public school system is the one institution which 
is more completely representative of the American plan, spirit, 
and purpose than any other. It can continue to be the instru- 
ment of our security and the star of our hope only so long as it 
holds the interest and confidence of all the people by assuring the 
rights of every one to the best teaching." As for the institutions 
of higher education, they are as indispensable for the preparation 
of teachers, as for many other fundamentally necessary services. 

This vast question can not be treated here in any detail. The 
suggestions that are offered must be concluded by quoting a pas- 
sage from an address by President W. L. Bryan of Indiana Uni- 
versity on the preparation of teachers for the high schools : 

"The high school has been called the people's college. In the Ameri- 
can high school nearly the whole range of learning and many of the 
arts and handicrafts are represented. Here society sets for the young 
people tasks of many sorts which should lead them toward society at 



TEACHERS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 25 

its best. The tasks, the standards, the spirit in every department of 
the high school should be such as shall stand approved in the judgment 
of those men who represent the several departments of art and of learning 
at their best. Second-best standards and spirit in a school are a calam- 
ity. They mistrain. They build up within the mind of the youth, bar- 
riers of misinformation, and of incorrect habits. A generation of high 
school teachers, educated in second-rate schools and seldom in touch with 
productive scholars, means a. high school insulated from the upper cur- 
rents of civilized life. It is not enough that high school teachers should 
be taught respectably upon a collegiate level. They require the quick- 
ening effect of daily life with men who are themselves scholars, who know 
the inner meaning and spirit of learning as it can be known only by 
those who are productive men. 

"Whatever the other schools may do in this matter, it is obvious that 
part of the work must rest with the universities. This proposition 
scarcely requires discussion. It would be the last degree of absurdity 
to establish universities, each with its group of masters, and then by 
some legerdemain of legislation to provide that these masters shall not 
through their students become the teachers of the whole people. 

"The universities must provide adequately, — as they have seldom done 
in the past, — for the professional training of high school teachers. 
There are university men who fail to realize this necessity, — to whom it 
seems that a university training in the subject to be taught is sufficient, 
and that so-called professional training is for the most part a deceptive 
hocus-pocus. This view is supported by the fact that much of the peda- 
gogy disseminated is hocus-pocus, having the appearance but not the 
reality of sound learning, or in other cases an array of generalities and 
truisms barren of practical utility. 

"If, however, a university man of practical intelligence will spend 
some time in visiting high schools, he will presently be led to see that 
a knowledge of his subject is by no means a sufficient preparation for 
teaching it satisfactorily in a high school. He can not avoid seeing in 
some cases that the work is very largely a failure, that the students 
are baffled, out-of-heart, — ready at the first opportunity to leave school 
altogether. The more one is obliged to face this difficulty, the greater 
it appears and the harder its solution seems to be. The university pro- 
fessor who has given no attention to secondary education is not an 
adequate adviser. How a high school boy should be led toward and into 
his field of learning is a problem which he can not answer ex tempore. 



26 SCHOOLS FOR DEFECTIVES 

The professor of education, with whatever equipment of learning in the 
principles of education, but who is unacquainted with the substance and 
spirit of the subject to be taught, is likewise an inadequate adviser. 
He knows very vaguely the end and how can he know the way. In 
point of fact the teaching of a high school subject presents a problem 
which must be solved by men who are masters of that subject and who 
then devote themselves to finding out how to deal with it in a high 
school. I venture to say here that the study of such a problem may be 
original and productive work as truly as any other research, and may be 
a piece of first-rate practical statesmanship. If one can make sound 
learning of any kind do its proper work with a larger percentage of 
boys, he is conserving the most valuable assets of society." 

State Schools for Defectives 

There is a fundamental difference between higher educational 
institutions, and schools for defectives, or charitable and penal in- 
stitutions. The latter are mentioned in this discussion only to 
distinguish them from the former. The institutions of higher 
education are the best investment of society for the conservation 
and utilization of its most valuable product. Nothing is of greater 
importance to society than the right development of the potential 
powers of the best and ablest of its young men and women. The 
expenditure for guarding defectives is, aside from its charity, a 
protective measure for avoiding worse loss and damage. Compe- 
tent opinion is unanimous, that "the government of the two classes 
of institutions is absolutely antithetical." The government of sev- 
eral charitable or several penal institutions by one board of con- 
trol, has proved successful in several cases. Of course, institu- 
tions thus segregated for governmental control should never be of 
disparate kinds. For instance all state asylums for the insane 
might be properly governed by one board, or all penitentiaries by 
another; but a school for the blind should never be so combined 
with orphan asylums^ or either with a reformatory school. 



V. VOLUNTARY CO-OPERATION. 

Voluntary consultation between the administrative heads of a 
State's institutions of higher education should be frequent, and so 
thorough that each is always apprised of the work and plans of 
all. On occasions, a plain necessity for voluntary agreement be- 
tween the governing boards arises. The present juncture of pub- 
lic affairs in Texas marks a signal occasion, in which there is ex- 
traordinary and paramount need for deliberate and magnanimous 
co-operation. The situation demands high intelligence, correct 
knowledge, energetic courage, and unselfish harmony. It is a 
fateful crisis for the educational development of Texas. A con- 
stitutional amendment, which the legislature might follow by 
either wise or unwise reorganization of all governing boards, will 
probably be adopted at an approaching election. Democratic plat- 
form demands call for various important measures — among them 
a just and equitable division of endowment funds between the 
university and agricultural college. A well sustained movement 
will endeavor to secure a state tax adequate to the regular sup- 
port of the institutions and definitely apportioned by the law 
establishing it. These and other matters will be precipitated into 
a confused wrangle before a legislature distracted by a multitude 
of other affairs, unless the governing boards unite in advocating 
a clear and convincing proposal for each important measure. 

Preceding chapters have presented the fundamental principles 
respecting the constitution of governing boards, illustrated by a 
summary of pertinent experience. 

If the platform demand for "the complete divorcement of the 
University and Agricultural and Mechanical College/' and for "a 
just and equitable division" of their joint endowment, is to re- 



28 DIVISION" OF ENDOWMENT 

ceive legislative attention, disastrous consequences might follow a 
report by the governing boards of their inability to agree upon a 
division. Surely they have more knowledge of both historical and 
present conditions, and more time for discussion and deliberation 
than the legislature. Opinions may differ as to what would be 
"a. just and equitable division/' but, in a situation where some 
decision is required, a joint session of the two boards ought to be 
the best arbiter between conflicting views or desires. If the two 
institutions were one state university, — as is the case in Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, California, — the endow- 
ment by the State of Texas and the endowment received from the 
United States would be administered as one fund. In order to 
divide endowment resources for completely separated administra- 
tions, it is simply necessary to agree upon a ratio of partition - 
ment. To do that would not be as difficult as it may seem to 
some jealous hearts who have not yet faced the question intellectu- 
ally. The productive endowment yielded for the year 1910-11, 
from investments in bonds and from leases of land received from 
the State $165,419, and from the U. S. Government $63,750, mak- 
ing a total of $229,169. For the same year the A. & M. College 
received thereof $71,984, which is $4,406 less than one-third, and 
$14,692 more than one-fourth. So far as current income from 
endowment is concerned, it might be easy to agree to one-third 
for the agricultural college. The partitionment of land, much of 
it never yet productive of revenue, is a more difficult question; but 
the governing boards ought to reach an amicable agreement by 
mutual concessions. They are the most competent agency for the 
proper accomplishment of that task of statesmanship, if they will 
rise to the occasion. 

A measure of vital importance must be framed to secure a state 
tax for the regular support of the three state institutions of higher 
education and the four state normal schools. Some of the main 
benefits of such a measure would be lost if the law establishing 



NECESSARY TAX 29 

the tax did not apportion the proceeds in three fixed parts to the 
three higher institutions, and a distinct part for the snpport of 
the four state normal schools. The latter ought to be adminis- 
tered as one fund by the State Normal School Board of Eegents, 
according to the varying needs of the respective normal schools. 

The problem thus presented cannot be properly solved unless 
the four governing boards concerned accept some well deliberated 
plan, formulated in a carefully prepared bill, and unite in har- 
monious support of that bill. Or, if it be decided that an amend- 
ment to the Constitution is necessary, a corresponding joint reso- 
lution to submit the constitutional amendment should be prepared 
and supported. 

The total amount that must be supplied from the revenues of 
the State in order that Texas may take a place among the States 
that have undertaken to secure efficient services from their insti- 
tutions of higher education, has been reliably ascertained from a 
study of the financial basis of such institutions in all of those 
States.* It is also shown in that study that the proceeds of a 
tax of eight-tenths of a mill, or 8 cents on $100; on the assess- 
ment of 1911 for Texas, would not fall far short of the requisite 
sum — $2,000,000. Such a tax, with wise administration, would 
enable the State of Texas to secure the present average services 
enjoyed in the other States. 

There may be many Texans who would not be permanently 
satisfied by securing only average educational and scientific services 
from their institutions; but it would be prudent to postpone any 
undertaking looking toward leadership, until appropriate meas- 
ures for so high an enterprise can be adopted in the light of ex- 
perience with an average status. 



*"A Study of the Financial Basis of the State Universities and Agri- 
cultural Colleges in Fourteen States," issued by the Organization for the 
Enlargement by the State of Texas of its Institutions of Higher Educa- 
tion, — mailed free of charge on request. 



30 NECESSARY TAX 

The rate 8 cents on $100, if Texas candidly proposes to attend 
to the business of securing efficient services from its state insti- 
tutions of higher education, will seem high only to those not in- 
formed of the actual practice in other States. The average of 
the States considered in the study referred to is 6 cents (without 
allowance for cost of collection), and that has already been raised 
by the recently established 10-cents tax for the University of 
Illinois. The reader is also reminded again that in California, 
Illinois, and Ohio, great universities were excluded from consider- 
ation whose resources exceed the support provided for state uni- 
versities. The co-operation of the people to secure for themselves 
the services of a comprehensive and efficient university, requires* in 
Wisconsin 8-J cents, in Minnesota 8} cents, in Michigan 6 \ cents, 
in Iowa 7 cents, in Colorado 7'i cents, without allowance for cost 
of collection. These being the States of the whole list with which 
Texas would be most justly and most willingly compared, the 8 
cents suggested for Texas should not startle anybody. 

One of the great advantages of an established tax for educa- 
tional institutions is the fact that the increase of property value 
keeps pace, at the same tax rate, with the increase of students and 
with the increasing needs of a growing population for many direct 
public services. 

The addition of one cent for the normal schools would yield 
at the outset about $250,000 for those four schools — an average 
of $62,500 a year for each State Normal School. Under the cur- 
rent approbations by the legislature for the two years ending 
August 31, 1913, each normal school receives on the average 
$58,710 a year. If the standards of those schools are to be raised 
and their forces strengthened, it will he necessary to add more 



*A11 tax rates mentioned have been reduced to the same basis of as- 
sessment valuations, according to estimates by state tax commissions, 
comptrollers, etc. 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 31 

than one cent for the normal schools, to the eight cents for the 
three higher institutions. The addition of two cents for the nor- 
mal schools would yield $500,000, or an average of $125,000 a 
year for each of those schools. 

A tax of one mill (10 cents on $100) is the levy necessary to 
put and keep all the institutions referred to on a basis of average 
efficiency. If the people of Texas desire to enlarge and strengthen 
their educational institutions, so as to secure for themselves such 
services as are enjoyed in the States whose social and industrial 
interests are now profiting by those advantages, they must un- 
doubtedly expend at least the amount here indicated. 

The obligation upon the governing boards to agree to a fixed 
partitionment of the tax, is peremptory. There is no other way 
to avoid annual struggles that would be wretchedly injurious. On 
the other hand, no vital mistake could be made in fixing the 
division. Inasmuch as the total amount is the minimum sufficient 
to accomplish its purpose, it is certain that no division would 
apportion to any one of the three institutions more than it could 
use to the public advantage. If to any one should be allotted a 
portion that proved insufficient for enterprises which the legisla- 
ture desired to be continued or developed, an additional appro- 
priation would be made for that institution. It is certain that 
every institution will from time to time have to present some 
special need to the legislature. The tax proposed would provide 
for ordinary expenditures for building, but times must come when 
some large necessity for additional ground, or for some extraor- 
dinary building, would require recourse to the legislature. Such 
is the proper theory of a tax for regular maintenance and support. 
The legislature ought to retain a regulative power, to be exer- 
cised in decisions concerning appropriations additional to the pro- 
ceeds of an established tax sufficient to meet foreseeable neces- 
sities. 



32 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

It would be rash in any individual to suggest any precise appor- 
tionment as one which ought to be agreed to. I am merely argu- 
ing that the governing boards should agree on some definite ap- 
portionment to be made by the law establishing the tax. The fol- 
lowing statement of what a certain apportionment of a 10-cents 
tax would yield each of the institutions, is intended simply as an 
example. It will be a convenience to the thoughtful reader, as 
either a point of rest or a point of departure for his own judgment. 

A 10-cents tax for the maintenance and development of the 
State's educational institutions would yield next year about $2,- 
500,000. The 10 cents must be apportioned somehow; for example 

University of Texas 4J cents $1,125,000 

A. & M. College, with Prairie View Inst 3 cents 750,000 

Girls' College , \ cent 125,000 

Four State Normal Schools ($125,000 each).. 2 cents 500,000 

Any definite apportionment of the tax would be better than an 
apportionment dependent upon contingent factors. There is no 
factor, or combination of factors, upon which succeeding appor- 
tionments could be made to depend without entailing injurious 
consequences. Temptations to swell such factors artificially would 
lead to wasteful or degrading measures. Nothing could be more 
ill advised, for instance, than an apportionment contingently de- 
pendent upon the number of students. Such a law would in- 
evitably tend to corrupt the administration of all the institutions. 
The number of students is by no means the controlling factor of 
proper cost. Its bearing may coiricide with that of other needs, 
but a great many services to the State and to individual citizens, 
besides teaching students for the regular term of enrollment, are 
to be taken into account. Every factor, however, has its due 
weight, and it will assist to impartial conclusions to compare the 
apportionment, here stated for purposes of illustration, with the 
number of students for the regular term of enrollment a year ago, 
excluding summer schools and correspondence students. Of the 
total number of students for regular term of enrollment, the TJni- 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 33 

versity had 60 per cent, the A. and M. College 32 per cent, and 
the Girls' College 8 per cent.* If 4 J cents were assigned to the 
University, 3 cents to the A. and M. College, and J cent to the 
Girls' College, there would be apportioned to the University 56 J 
per cent of the total 8 cents for the three higher institutions, to 
the A. and M. College 37J per cent, and to the Girls' College 6| 
per cent. 

University 60% of students. . . Ah cents would be 56|% of 8 cents 

A. & M. College.. 32% of students... 3 cents would be 37$% of 8 cents 
Girls' College.... 8% of students.... $ cent would be 61% of 8 cents 

No account was taken of the Prairie View Institute for negroes 
(which is governed by and was charged to the Board of Directors 
of the A. and M. College) in this comparison respecting number 
of students; but the apportionment used for illustration still 
plainly gives considerable advantage on that score to the A. and 
M. College. There are other considerations of greater weight. 

The University and the A. and M. College have many spheres 
of work which are more costly than any that should ever be under- 
taken by the Girls' College. Moreover, it is such public services 
by the University and the A. and M. College that the State of 
Texas especially needs to increase in number, to enlarge in ex- 
tent, and to improve in quality. The tentative distribution, here 
set forth merely as a point of departure, might be adjusted to 
assign more to the University and less to the A. and M. College, 
but hardly in the reverse way. Possibly it might be deemed proper 
to make the allotment to the Girls' College f cent, and the allot- 
ment to the A. and M. College 2f cents. It is for the three gov- 
erning boards to determine their advice to the legislature, in an 
impartial, statesmanlike way, looking toward an inspiring future. 
The portions must be scant for all. Need for buildings might 



*See Table II of "A Study of the Financial Basis of the State Uni- 
versities and Agricultural Colleges in Fourteen States," — mailed free of 
charge on request. 



34 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

make one of them seem, at first, disproportionately inadequate; 
but the apportionment ought to be fixed mainly on the more 
steady factors of comparative needs. Future legislatures should 
be relied upon to make an additional appropriation when plainly 
necessary for some new building. 

The very name and nature of each of the three institutions 
vaguely outline the future developments that are for it most de- 
sirable. Those developments should be taken as the chief criteria 
for a just apportionment of the tax. 

The college for girls has a comparatively restricted sphere of 
work. The number of its students will remain comparatively 
small, — if only for the reason that so many girls and young 
women will always attend the normal schools and the university. 
It is not probable that the ratio of the number of students in the 
girls' college to the number of students in the university will 
ever be very different from that of the portions of the tax assigned 
to them in the apportionment we have used for illustration. 
Costly departments of postgraduate instruction and research need 
not and should not be maintained there. In short, the proper cost 
of "a university of the first class" is more than ten times the cost 
of an excellent college for girls. The apportionment referred to 
makes the ratio nine to one; but the addition of the university's 
income from endowment would keep its resources about ten times 
the resources of the girls' college. These are simply business 
facts. Size does not measure importance, nor is preciousness to 
be measured by cost. The present writer certainly has no lack 
of appreciation of the State's college for girls and young women. 
He has served three terms as a member of its board of regents, 
and long before he began that service, in an address at the open- 
ing of the institution on September 23, 1903, he spoke the follow- 
ing words, which are quoted here because they set forth the idea 
of far-reaching influence independent of local magnitude: 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 35 

"The new departure whose inauguration we witness today constitutes 
a high tribute to the statesmanship which has given this answer to the 
clamor of genuine but more or less blind popular demands. What it shall 
lead to would be too much for any man to say today, but it seems to me 
a pregnant event from which great and far-reaching consequences may 
follow. ... Its immediate work, the wise training of a few hun- 
dred girls every year, is a most useful enterprise; but the scope of 
its effects may reach beyond such limits, moulding affairs which con- 
cern hundreds of thousands instead of hundreds. The time may not 
be far distant when every high school in Texas shall look to this new 
school for girls as the source of fundamental changes in its work and 
ideals, by which courses of study now offered without discrimination to 
boys and girls will be differentiated in recognition of facts of nature and 
human nature so long and so crudely ignored. Our larger cities may 
find themselves led to dividing their high schools, — one for boys and one 
for girls, with suitably differentiated courses of study and methods of 
management. Who can tell? Reasons are not wanting to fear that the 
uncompromising application of the co-educational plan is working dam- 
age. It may be that what is proper for elementary schools and later for 
some professional schools and for postgraduate studies, is unfit for the 
secondary and collegiate stages. These questions are now engaging earn- 
est attention throughout our common country; and the decision to which 
this State shall ultimately come depends largely upon the experience and 
reputation to be gained here in this institution, the first to be funda- 
mentally differentiated upon grounds of sex that the State of Texas has 
established." 

That high presentiment of the germinal meaning and potential 
force of the institution I hold today — confirmed by actual events 
in which its realization has already been begun. But such an 
estimate of the value of possible results has no bearing on the 
financial question under consideration. The necessary cost of the 
proper instruction and other activities needed to accomplish the 
main purposes of each institution, should determine the apportion- 
ment of a tax for their support. The value to individuals and to 
the State of all resulting effects is a matter that takes care of 
itself. For example, the fact that the teaching of law is less ex- 
pensive than the teaching of medicine does not imply any com- 



36 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

parison between the " value" of law and the "value'' of medicine. 
Any discussion of the comparative value of law and medicine 
would be useless — probably absurd. It is enough to know that 
both are necessary, and that each ought to be taught well, or not 
taught at all. Knowledge and appreciation of domestic economy 
and arts on the part of women is of immense value to themselves 
and to society ; but it is one of the chief services of the College of 
Industrial Arts for Women that its ideals and work should lead all 
other institutions that undertake the education of girls, to offer 
some of the courses of instruction for which it has developed 
appreciation and should maintain standards. The university and 
the normal schools have already begun to follow its lead in this 
respect, and domestic arts courses have been established in many 
high schools. The largest result of the work that should be done 
by the College of Industrial Arts for Women will appear in due 
time through work done and paid for by other colleges ' and by 
normal schools and by a thousand high schools, and through effects 
of the latter in a million homes. Of course, the place and need 
for the college will continue to expand. It is the only non-coedu- 
cational college for girls supported by the State. Many parents 
will prefer to send daughters there, and it will be the best collegi- 
ate institution for many girls. Inspiration and leadership in its 
sphere of work and ideas must never fail. It is a permanent and 
should be a growing part of the State's provision for higher edu- 
cation. 

The urgent need of the State of Texas for a strong and active 
college of agriculture is too apparent to call for argument. The 
development at the A. and M. College of a comprehensive school of 
technology would, also, be of great service to the State; but there 
is no hope of means sufficient to reach good standards, in the near 
future, in all branches. It would seem to be an appropriate policy 
to strengthen such of the present technological departments as 
could be most readily raised to good standards, and to devote in- 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 37 

creased resources mainly to invigorating and enlarging all agricul- 
tural departments. Perhaps it would be expedient to desist from 
some non-agricultural undertaking that has been only nominally 
attempted. 

There is certainly one thing that has been put upon the A. 
and M. College from which it ought to be freed, even if its 
resources were unlimited. At present the college is charged 
with "the administration of the feed control law." That matter 
properly appertains to an executive department of the state gov- 
ernment. It was a fundamental mistake to attach it to an edu- 
cational institution. The feed control law cannot be administered 
without alert prosecution of all violators of the law. This great 
State, with its population of four millions, needs a vigorous ad- 
ministration of sound laws for the protection of the people against 
injurious or fraudulent substances in food, drugs, and feed for 
animals. Such protection is as essential to good government as 
the prevention of false weights and measures or counterfeited 
money. But all these are functions that can be rightly discharged 
only by the executive department of the government. No educa- 
tional institution should be required to administer any general 
law; and any such institution, having thoughtlessly sought or 
acquiesced in such an incompatibility, should clear itself of the 
impropriety as promptly as possible. It is to be hoped that the 
next Legislature will establish in the executive branch of the gov- 
ernment a pure food and drug department to have charge of all 
germane affairs. It should be equipped for full efficiency in its 
double function — the scientific ascertainment of the facts, and the 
enforcement of the law. The commissioner in charge of such a 
department should be appointed by the governor, and should com- 
bine in himself the scientific attainments needed to organize and 
control a staff of chemists, bacteriologists, etc., and the knowledge 
and the courage necessary to prosecute successfully all violators of 
the law. 

The immense and varied agricultural interests of Texas present 



38 APPORTIONMENT OP THE TAX 

such need and opportunity for scientific services, that the problem 
of making the best use of narrow means must be difficult. It 
would repay the people of Texas a hundred-fold, for example, to 
spend a million dollars a year on agricultural experiment and dis- 
semination work alone. Hitherto it has been solely through the 
co-operation of the federal government that anything has been pro- 
vided for such services. The people of Texas have as yet done 
nothing for themselves in this respect. In one of its many ad- 
mirable editorials upon the advancement of agriculture, "Farm 
and Eanch" (issue of June 15, 1912) gives an account of the 
earnest endeavors of the A. and M. College and of its director of 
experiment stations, to improve the experiment station service. 
But the editorial writer points out the meager support, and asks, 
"how could the people expect to get results of real benefit?" He 
declares that, "since the passage of the Hatch* act, the State of 
Texas has not appropriated one cent for maintenance of the ex- 
periment station at College Station." The article includes a state- 
ment of the director, from which the following striking passages 
are quoted: 

"When I arrived here August 15, 1911, I found only four divisions 
of the station conducting any lines of original research, . . . and 
none of these, with the possible exception of the division of chemistry, 
had work of sufficient volume to be of more effect upon the great field 
of Texas agriculture than the thumping of a rubble out into a mill pond. 
In fact, the divisions of the station which ought to be doing the great- 
est amount of work for the Texas farmer were the least developed of 
all. . . . While it is not my aim to weaken any of the stronger 



*The beginning of experiment stations in the United States was the 
act of Congress, called the Hatch Act, passed in 1887, which estab- 
lished an agricultural experiment station as a department of every state 
agricultural college. In 1906 the Adams act was passed to increase 
stimulation to the research urgently needed by the agricultural inter- 
ests of the entire country. These were co-operative measures, and were 
not intended to constitute the whole support of such work. The people 
of each State are expected to do their part. 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 39 

divisions (as they themselves should be strengthened), I shall devote 
the greater part of my energies for the first few years, at least, to 
strengthening and amplifying the work of the more fundamental divi- 
sions. . . . We should have a specialist devoting his time to the 
corn industry of the state, but have no funds with which to employ him. 
We should have a legume specialist and a sorghum specialist also. In 
planning the work in agronomy we have projected every line of investi- 
gation that our funds will permit us to conduct, and have extended this 
work from the main station out on to all of the sub-stations in various 
sections of the state. In the future we shall have state-wide data in 
reference to every given crop practice. 

"Experiment stations are the agencies which create or discover new 
and valuable ideas for the farmers. . . . All disseminating agencies 
are drawing on some staff of investigators for the information which they 
disseminate. I consider it shameful that these agencies in Texas at the 
present time get most of the information which they disseminate from 
outside sources. . . . 

"Texas is in every sense the greatest agricultural state in the union, 
and yet it maintains one of the smallest experiment staffs in the world." 

There are at least four great sections of Texas characterized 
so distinctly by different agricultural conditions that probably four 
main experiment stations are needed, each to be the center for sub- 
stations in its section. It might seem, upon consideration, advis- 
able and practicable to maintain a special school preparatory for 
the agricultural college in connection with each of such main sta- 
tions. But it is not the purpose of this discussion to attempt to 
consider details of internal administration. The main point here 
is that only by harmonious co-operation will it be possible to 
secure the proposed tax for all the institutions. It should be 
realized by all who take part in responsible deliberations concern- 
ing the apportionment of the tax, that its proceeds would fall far 
short of making feasible all that is desirable. There must be 
selection and mutual concessions. It may, indeed, be best, as has 
been already suggested, to acquire some experience with such aver- 
age standards as could be attained in the most essential depart- 
ments through the proposed tax, before attempting more. It is 



40 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

probable, also, that the taxed wealth of Texas will grow rapidly, 
and that continual expansion and improvement will be possible 
without increase of the rate of taxation. 

When we consider such a university as is needed by the great 
commonwealth of Texas, the needs for enlargement and improve- 
ment of the present establishment are bewildering. Desirable 
measures outrun all possible resources even further and more widely 
than in the case of the A. and M. College. The greater part of 
the University's portion of the proposed tax could be expended 
profitably, for instance, upon its medical school alone. Here 
again, therefore, there must be the necessity for selection. The 
chief program should be one of improving to a high standard of 
usefulness all essential departments already existing. Many such 
departments are now merely languishing in an incipient or en- 
feebled condition. Some new departments should, doubtless, be 
added, — for instance, a department of preventive medicine and 
public hygiene in the medical school. Or, means may be avail- 
able for adding some entire school, such as a school of journalism 
in the College of Arts. The general principle has been forcibly 
stated by President Bryan of Indiana University as follows : 

"In some cases, we have a university whose circle of activities ap- 
proaches correspondence with the whole circle of services which society 
requires from learned men. Unhappily, however, there is no university 
rich enough to carry out with success so vast a program. The rich- 
est university is, therefore, in peril of so multiplying the lines of its 
work that all the lines of its work shall be lowered in quality. It is 
very possible in this way for a university to so scatter its resources 
that it can do nothing at all of first-rate quality. Whether a univer- 
sity be relatively rich or poor, its greatest mistake, financial and edu- 
cational, is to indulge in a policy of expansions which live by sapping 
the strength from established lines of work. . . . All forms of ex- 
pansion come to the same thing if they involve spending money upon 
more things than can be done well. 

"The penalties which fall upon an institution which sins greatly in 
this respect are severe. The library suffers. The laboratories suffer. 



APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 41 " , 

Salaries are kept down. The best men escape. Those who remain lose 
heart. The quality of everything done about the institution is lowered. 
The final calamity is that all. this tends to bring to and establish in the 
institution a faculty of mediocre men. There is no known [quick] rem- 
edy for this calamity. If the institution grows suddenly rich, the way 
to progress is blocked by a group of men who cannot be removed except 
by death, and whose mediocrity will pervade the institution for a gen- 
eration. It is my belief that there is no American university which has 
not suffered more or less by expansions which have affected the quality 
of its work. It is certain that some of the universities with small in- 
comes, in their effort to cover every field, have brought themselves in 
every field to a deplorable weakness. And it is certain that some among 
the universities with large incomes have, through the same error, grown 
large without having grown great." 

I 

As has been suggested by a bracketted word inserted in the 

preceding quotation, although there is no quick remedy for the full 
consequences of the mistake referred to, the remedy is not un- 
known. 'The way to resume is to resume/ Critics should not be 
too censorious of the error of having attempted to do too much. 
Good intentions do not avert the consequences of a mistake, but 
they render correction comparatively easy. During its first forma- 
tive period a state university may properly err a little in the way 
of adding departments before means for their support are sup- 
plied, in order to attract the sympathetic attention of the public 
and the legislature. No such policy, however, may be followed 
without injury for thirty years — the period during which the Uni- 
versity of Texas has been kept in swaddling clothes. It has been 
zeal to serve beyond measure, that has commonly led state univer- 
sities to attempt to do more than could be done well with the 
means put at their disposal. When increased means are supplied 
to a university that has been led into such error, the way to 
progress is open, if its rulers will see it.* The caravan must 



*For a warning example in which a wrong way was adopted, leading 
to a condition in which "the last state of that man is worse than the 
first," see pp. 12-13. 



42 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

move with some crippled members and with some burdens that 
cannot be cast away incontinently, but the way lies open and 
straight forward. Some of the lame will soon learn to walk 
sturdily, and the burdens will gradually diminish. Nothing could 
be more unreasonable than to assign dissatisfaction with some 
existing circumstance, as a ground for refusing to establish the 
only permanent condition upon which proper results can be built. 
The worse anyone thinks of some present circumstance, the more 
urgent he should be to establish a financial basis for improvement. 

Among the necessities for the University of Texas are some 
genuine graduate departments. It is required by the organic law 
of the State that "a university of the first class" shall be main- 
tained. As a matter of fact, the existing institution could hardly 
be termed a university of any class in the distinctive meaning of 
the word — the meaning in which university is distinguished from 
college. The university degrees, as distinguished from the college 
degrees, have never been conferred, nor could any graduate of the 
"University of Texas," under present conditions, be candidly ad- 
vised to study for the Ph. D. degree in this State. No one has 
ever yet done so, and no well-informed man will ever* do so until 
conditions are changed. A few years ago the catalog of the Uni- 
versity of Texas began to announce requirements for the Ph. D. 
degree, and it has since continued such an announcement; but no 
one has ever finished the courses, nor have they in any legitimate 
sense ever existed. That is the sort of thing that ought never to 
be done again. 

The time has come when the legislature of Texas ought to de- 
cide whether this State needs a real university, or not. If they 
decide that Texas does not need a university, the name "Univer- 
sity of Texas" should be changed to something like Texas State 
College. If they decide that Texas does need a university, they 
should see the immediate necessity of erecting a university on the 
broad collegiate foundation which has been well and firmly laid. 
The true condition was recently (September 28, 1912) stated very 



APPORTIONMENT OP THE TAX 43 

spicily by "Farm and Banch," in a leading article entitled "Be- 
ginning a State University": "The fathers named the infant 
'University' before it was born, just as we name a baby 'Thomas 
Jefferson/ in the hope that with the years it will grow to be a 
Thomas Jefferson in intellect and power and be not one in name only. 
So it is with the university ; it must grow to be one in reality, not 
remain one in name only. . . . The guardians of the future 
must feel an added interest in it and give it additional care and 
subsistence. . . . There is today a greater demand for higher 
education, a very much greater demand for more departments of 
higher education, than ever before. The University of Texas 
should measure up to the standing of Texas in the sisterhood of 
States." 

If any man criticizes harshly any present fact, let him under- 
stand that its proximate, if not its immediate cause, has been in- 
adequate and precarious support. Let him know that the average 
salary paid the teaching force of the University of Texas thirty 
years ago was double the present average salary. How could an 
intelligent man demand of the University of Texas, in its present 
circumstances, the first-class research and manifold services to the 
general public which have come to be essential characteristics of 
the modern university? The youth of the state are crowding its 
halls so that the number of its teachers (no one paid more than 
three-fourths as much, and the average of all about half as much 
as was paid thirty years ago) is insufficient to perform the work 
of undergraduate collegiate instruction as required by good stand- 
ards. Modern society has reached a stage when weak or spurious 
services by a state institution of higher education are no longer 
permissible. They are a snare for the youth who are led to wast- 
ing irrecoverable time, and the people at large are cheated of the 
general benefits of genuine and strong work. 

There would be, of course, no propriety in considering the de- 
tails of a future program for any one of the institutions in the 



44 APPORTIONMENT OF THE TAX 

joint counsels of the governing boards of all, and any attempt to 
dictate internal policies would be a most pernicious precedent.* It 
is simply required that all should recognize that each of the in- 
stitutions has almost unlimited opportunities for expansion and 
urgent need for the strengthening of its forces for work already 
undertaken. The occasion has for its essence the duty of co-oper- 
ating, and it would be inappropriate for any member of one of 
the boards to regard himself as a special advocate. The three 
boards are responsible for harmonious advice to the legislature for 
a wise apportionment of a tax for the support of the three insti- 
tutions. The policy best for the State should be formulated. It 
is, therefore, from the point of view of the State's interests in all 
of its institutions, and not as a partisan contestant for any one of 
them, that their regents ought to deliberate this special question. 
When the people have only a choice of electing one of several 
self-constituted office-seekers, it has often resulted, for instance, 
that an alderman or member of a city school board has shown him- 
self incapable of conceiving the city's good, and has thought only 
of his own "ward." But the people of Texas have charged the 
governors of their State with the high duty of selecting citizens 
fitted by character and intelligence for the great and honorable 
and unpaid office of regent of a state institution of higher edu- 
cation. They are therefore entitled to expect that, when the 
occasion demands it, men so appointed will pass judgment on a 
large question in a magnanimous way, holding in view the State's 
interest. Tactics of each grabbing for his own ward would be 
grossly out of place at a council board charged with the duty of 
giving good advice to the law-making powers for the apportion- 
ment of a tax for the educational institutions of the State. 



*Any infringement by the legislature upon the sphere of administration 
would be still worse. See pp. 3-4. 



CO-OPERATION BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 45 

Co-operation by the Federal Government 

Co-operation by the federal government in regard to agricul- 
tural experiment stations has been referred to. It is an indica- 
tion Of the vastness of the need and opportunities for scientific 
assistance to all industries, that it is now proposed to do for min- 
ing what has been done for agriculture. The "Foster Bill" has 
already been very favorably considered and will probably be passed 
by the next Congress. The bill provides that appropriations, be- 
ginning at $5,000 a year and rising $5,000 each succeeding year 
to $25,000 as the annual appropriation thereafter, shall be paid 
to each State for the maintenance of a school of mines in one of 
its state educational institutions. The object of the proposed ap- 
propriation is the encouragement of instruction, research, and ex- 
periment with a view to teaching scientific knowledge of the best 
and safest methods of mining and producing metals, coal and 
other minerals, oil, gas, and medicinal waters, and the concentrat- 
ing and refining and other preparation of the same for market- 
ing; and the study and prevention of explosions, fires, and other 
dangers incident to mining, in order to secure intelligent conser- 
vation, use, and development of the resources of the country, to 
make the lives of miners more safe and property in mines more 
secure, and to promote the general welfare.* The bill provides: 
"If there be already established in any State a school of mines 
and mining under the control of said State, or a department of 
instruction in mining connected with anv institution of learnino- 
controlled by said State, then the moneys appropriated in this Act 
shall go to said school or department of instruction already estab- 
lished." 

The last quoted provision of the bill would determine the loca- 
tion of the school in Texas, inasmuch as there is no school of 
mines at the A. and M. College, and one has been "already estab- 



*Condensed from Sec. 3 of the bill. 



46 CO-OPERATION" BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

lished"in the University. The University "School of Mines" is, 
indeed, a very feeble affair, but when taken together with the 
"University Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology," a re- 
spectable recipient of the federal aid exists. Those two parts of 
the University naturally belong in one school, if the Foster Bill 
is passed by Congress. The following official statement concern- 
ing the Bureau of Economic Geology shows how exactly in line 
its work is with the purpose of the proposed federal co-operation : 

"In order to meet the steady demand for information concerning the 
mineral resources of the State, the Board of Regents of the University 
established a Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology in the year 
1909. In so far as the funds available have permitted, this bureau has 
resumed the work of the University Mineral Survey which was suspended 
in the year 1905, from lack of means. 

"The action of the Board of Regents in providing means for the main- 
tenance of such a bureau marks an entirely new departure in educational 
work. No other institution of learning in the country has taken upon 
itself the duty of providing, at its own expense, an office to which any 
one may apply for information of this character. Great interest is now 
being shown in the investigation and development of the mineral wealth 
of the State, not only by the citizens of Texas, but by others from be- 
yond its borders. 

"The economic importance of the bureau's work for the State may 
be inferred from the fact that the present annual value of the mineral 
products Of Texas is close to $20,000,000. 

"In connection with its work the bureau maintains a large collection 
of material illustrative of the economic geology of Texas: asphalt rocks; 
cement; clays; coal and lignite; building and ornamental stones; ores 
of copper, silver, lead, zinc, quicksilver, iron, tin, uranium, etc.; oils 
and sections of oil wells; sulphur; graphite; salt; minerals for the manu- 
facture of white lime, paving brick, etc. These collections were begun by 
the Texas Geological Survey, 1888-1892, continued by the University Min- 
eral Survey, 1901-1905, and now comprise by far the largest and best 
collection to illustrate the economic geology of Texas ever brought 
together. The building and ornamental stones shown in six-inch cubes, 
columns, slabs, etc., cannot be duplicated anywhere. They exhibit 
the wealth of the State, in this direction, in a beautiful and attractive 



SCHOOL OF MINES 47 

manner. Additions are constantly being made. The museum is con- 
sulted by architects, contractors, and builders, as well as by many who 
are concerned in the development of the State along other lines. . . . 

"In July, 1911, the bureau issued a complete report on The Compo- 
sition of Texas Coals and Lignites and The Use of Producer Gas in 
Texas. In connection with the investigation of the fuels of the State 
an experimental gas plant is in active operation. The different coals 
and lignites are being distilled for the production of heating and il- 
luminating gas, tar and sulphate of ammonia. This inquiry is also to 
include an examination of the different woods used for fuel in this State. 
A course in The Technology of Fuels has been given by the bureau dur- 
ing the year. . . . 

"Arrangements are being made for the installation of an experimental 
gas producer in which the coals and lignites of the State may be tested 
in a practical manner. This will be distinct from the experimental gas 
plant already in operation, as the work in this latter plant is for the 
purpose of investigating the products from the distillation of coal and 
lignite in closed retorts. 

"Through the purchase of the private library of a prominent gas and 
coal engineer, supplemented by newer books on these subjects, the bureau 
has now at its disposal the best technical library in the entire southwest." 

It would be an unfortunate misunderstanding, if any one should 
wish to apply to the routine affairs of private business the policy 
rightly adopted by the bureau of economic geology in offering its 
services to all inquirers who are investigating ways and means of 
discovering and exploiting the mineral resources of Texas. It is, 
in the main, new knowledge, not otherwise obtainable, that the 
University's bureau of economic geology, and the A. and M. Col- 
lege's experiment stations seek and offer. Few things would be 
more weak and foolish than to yield to importunities from private 
individuals, or from governmental agencies (such as prosecuting 
attorneys), for gratuitous services of a routine kind, e. g., analyses 
of substances or human organs suspected of containing poisons, 
mere assays of familiar ores, etc. President James of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois has made the following pertinent remarks on this 
subject : 



48 SCHOOL OF MINES 

"The larger our income becomes the greater the pressure for this 
sort of thing. The last legislature passed a law giving the University 
of Illinois the benefit of a mill tax (10 cents on $100) beginning July 
1, 1913. That will probably give us two and one-half million dollars 
per year. Accompanying that and springing up in its wake since has 
been an enormous demand on the part of almost everybody who could 
think of anything the university might do for him to write us and ask 
us to undertake it, pleading the increase of our resources. I think it is 
one of the greatest dangers which state universities have to face — this 
tendency of the private business man to call on us for the solution of 
some practical problem in his own business which could be solved by 
any chemist just as well as by the chemists appointed by the University 
of Illinois. I think these are very large problems that will come up to 
trouble us with increasing frequency and force and degree as the years 
go on." 

No school of mines, or courses in mining engineering should 
be duplicated in two state institutions. This is now so well un- 
derstood, that in States where the mistake has been made, the 
weaker of the two schools will probably soon be discontinued. Dr. 
K. C. Babcock, Specialist in Higher Education in the U. S. Bureau 
of Education, in speaking a year ago, gave an amusing instance: 
"I am glad to report that at least one institution has seen light 
in this matter and has abandoned outright its rudimentary min- 
ing engineering course. If I am not mistaken, its president has 
practically agreed that, if any student in his institution finds him- 
self strongly bent upon mining engineering, such student shall 
have his fare paid to a good mining engineering school, to get 
first-class technical instruction, and that his university, at least, 
shall not undertake this highly expensive course." 

A school of mines involves some of the most expensive courses 
of instruction that are undertaken by educational institutions. It 
is for that reason, coupled with the importance of conserving and 
exploiting in the light of scientific knowledge the mineral re- 
sources of the country, that the Congress contemplates co-operat- 
ing with the several States for the improvement of schools of 



CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 49 

mines. It is to he hoped that Texas will in the near future per- 
form its part in the co-operation intended by the federal govern- 
ment, in regard to both agriculture and mining. If Texas had 
no other interest than the enormous deposits of lignite that under- 
lie one-fourth of its entire area, it would be a paying investment 
for the coffers of the State — to say nothing of the benefits to its 
citizens — to spend as much as the State spends on any entire in- 
stitution, on investigations and experiments for improved opera- 
tions in mining lignite and preparing it for economical use. 

Co-operation with Colleges 

The relations between a state university and secondary schools, 
especially the public high schools, constitute the most important of 
all fields of educational co-operation; but the main features of 
that co-operation belong to Part II of this study* — being affairs 
of internal organization and administration. Eelations with other 
colleges of the state do not fall entirely within the express title of 
Part I — "Features of Organization for which the Legislature is 
Responsible/' but the legislature is not without some direct re- 
sponsibility. The colleges of every sort have all been created by 
the authority of the State, and their graduates offer their services 
and their degrees in a common market. "The State should con- 
cern itself," says Dr. Babcock, Specialist in Higher Education in 
the U. S. Bureau of Education, "with three things related to these 
colleges [not state institutions] : they should contribute to, and 
not undermine, the efficiency of education in the state; they should 
describe and maintain the definite standards which give them a 



*See, also, an address by the present writer before the Department of 
Higher Education of the Southern Educational Association, Dec, 1911, 
on "The Proper Relation of the American University to the American 
High School," published in the 1911 volume of the Proceedings of the 
Association, in the Jan., 1912, issue of the Texas School Journal, in the 
Jan., 1912, issue of the American School Board Journal, and in the 
Sept., 1912, issue of the American Educational Review. 



50 CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 

reason for being; and their education should be what it professes 
to be, so that the time and money of no student or citizen of the 
state shall be obtained under false pretenses or through misrep- 
resentation. The law of the state of New York should be a 
model for other states in reforming their control of educational 
institutions within their borders." Speaking of the colleges of 
the whole country, the same writer tells the results of wide in- 
vestigations, as follows : 

"There is a wide difference in institutions bearing the name of col- 
lege. Probably twenty-five per cent of the institutions calling them- 
selves colleges or universities are doing little more than preparatory 
work. Another twenty-five per cent, or, perhaps, one hundred and fifty 
colleges, are doing only fairly effectively the first two years of a four, 
years course. At least one hundred and fifty more are simply colleges, 
but well established upon the four years basis, with good endowments, 
and with reasonable prospects of permanence. . . . 

"Recently there has come to our attention in the Bureau of Educa- 
tion the operations of several sorts of colleges or universities of ques- 
tionable origin and practices. Some of them are pure fakes. Some of 
them proceed in objectionable ways to offer courses and degrees by cor- 
respondence, even in such subjects as dentistry, civil engineering, and 
electrical engineering. Another group cheapen degrees and scholarship 
by methods, which, if used in law or medicine, would be characterized 
as unprofessional. No effective attempt seems to have been made, either 
by the state university or by the state, within the states in which these 
institutions are located, to protect their own citizens, or those of other 
States who are reached by correspopndence and advertising, from im- 
position by these offending or degenerate institutions. No state has a 
monopoly of the odium of granting charters indiscriminately. . . . 
Washington and Chicago are two chief centers of educational mal- 
practice." 

President Pritchett's remarks upon the most flagrant instance 
of neglect of legislative responsibility, conclude with a suggestion 
which indicates how far-reaching may be the obligation of every 
institution of higher education. In his Sixth Annual Report to 



CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 51 

the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, he 

says : 

' 'i 
"Congress, occupied with its larger duties, has so neglected, as the 

local legislature for the district, to throw safeguards around the estab- 
lishment of institutions that any three citizens, no matter how meagre 
their qualifications, may incorporate themselves as a university and con- 
fer any degree, except in medicine. It is not necessary for them to pro- 
cure any endowment, to own any equipment, or even to have any habitat 
beyond a postoffice address. The curriculum is entirely within their con- 
trol, and they might legally confer bachelor's, master's, and doctor's 
degrees upon every person in the United States, or in the universe, 
upon the sole condition of the willingness of the recipient. The only 
condition that is generally enforced is a financial one. Washington has 
therefore become logically the home of a large number of institutions 
whose dishonest practices are immensely aided by the apparent prestige 
of a location at the federal capital, and by the astounding privilege 
which enables these enterprises to say truly, that^they are 'incorporated 
under the provisions of an Act of Congress.' It is impossible to believe 
that the many educated men in both houses of Congress will not gladly 
terminate this abuse, whenever the college authorities that are among 
their constituents shall generally request it." 

It would carry us beyond the sphere of this study to discuss the 
substance and limits of proper legislative control of colleges that 
are not state institutions. Eecklessness in granting charters has 
been the mother of injurious colleges and universities, as well as 
of injurious industrial and financial combinations. The New York 
law would supply many practical suggestions. 

There is no ground in Texas for hostile competition* between 



*In most of the states such competition is disappearing, though evil 
consequences of the past still remain in some of them. President 
Pritchett has said: "Perhaps there is no state in the Union in which 
the unlimited competition between denominational, state, and local in- 
stitutions has so fully done its perfect work as in Ohio. All forms of 
politics and religion abound within its borders. There is a tradition 
that any twig of doctrine transplanted to the Western Reserve will 
flourish like a green bay tree. However that may be, it is certainly 



52 CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 

state and local and endowed institutions. True amity and sym- 
pathy prevail ; and the systematic co-operation, which it is the pur- 
pose of these paragraphs to indicate, has been cordially begun. It 
may be serviceable, however, to state distinctly some of the rea- 
sons for some desirable methods of such co-operation. 

Every strong state university must sooner or later face the duty 
of deciding which of the many colleges in its State shall re- 
ceive its direct and open co-operation, and which shall be allowed 
to go their way without such endorsement. Dr. Babsock, in a 
paper on "Kelations of the State University to the Colleges of the 
State," describes the general situation as follows: 

"Hitherto the state university has not been in a position to dis- 
criminate very carefully, certainly not very positively and openly, in 
favor of institutions which are sturdy, well endowed, and loyal to good 
educational ideals. One state university, for example, has a scholarship 
for one graduate from each degree -granting institution within the state, 
assuming that the students who thus undertake graduate work at the 
university will all be substantially equal in preparation. This assump- 
tion is not justified by the facts; the university authorities know per- 
fectly well that there is a wide difference in conditions and scholarship 
in the various institutions, and that these differences are reflected in 
the training of the students accredited. 

"This easy-going acceptance of unequal degrees of different institu- 
tions is bound to pass away. Greater frankness and not less sympathy 
will be demanded from the state universities. With ten, twenty, or 
thirty colleges in the state, the university should make public recogni- 
tion of the merits of the worthy, though it would not be necessary to speak 
equally frankly of the deficiencies of the weak or unworthy. Steps in 
this direction have been taken in several states. The University of Wis- 
consin has announced in its catalog a scheme of co-ordination of the 



true that Ohio is the most be-colleged state in the Union. Over fifty 
institutions have been chartered by that generous commonwealth, with 
power to confer the learned and professional degrees; and I am told 
that a man can get more kinds of college degrees in Ohio for less money 
than in any other region, unless it be in Chicago, 111., or Washing- 
ton, D. C." 



CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 53 

work of certain ealleges with the work of the university, so that a 
student at the end of two years may transfer from the college to the 
university without loss of time or credits. 

"Such a policy of discrimination requires courage, patience, tact, and 
frankness on the part of the colleges, as well as on the part of the 
university; but in the long run the colleges so co-operating will gain 
greatly. Some of those who choose to go their way without co-opera- 
tion will inevitably disappear through death or by combination with 
other institutions; some will undertake only two years of college work. 
While the university cannot afford to assume the function of execu- 
tioner of the weak, it can afford and should afford to announce defi- 
nite alliance with efficient colleges, recognize their work, and assist them 
in doing it with ever progressively better results. I am not pleading for 
the colleges as such, but rather for the great mass of students who are 
now seeking college education. 

"It would be a great gain to the university, to the colleges, and to 
students, if the university could perfect arrangements with the colleges 
that might say to students just graduating from the high school, 'Go to 
college A, or college B, whose curriculum, faculty, and equipment are 
satisfactory to us; do two, or three, or four years' work there; then 
come, if you will, to the university for advanced, or graduate, or pro- 
fessional work. I believe that one gain to the college in this process 
would be an increase in the number of students who remain at the col- 
lege for four years, instead of dropping out at the end of two years; 
and the peculiar influence which the smaller college is supposed to exert; 
upon the character of its students would be given opportunity to do its 
perfect work. 

"I believe that one of the most serious wastes in the present admin- 
istration of large state universities is through inadequate provision for 
the care and direction of freshmen and sophomores. The great institu- 
tions need to pass a self-denying ordinance that they will seek, not more 
freshmen, but fewer, that they will receive only so many as their re- 
sources of men and space will enable them to teach thoroughly and in- 
spiringly. If the state university can go so far as this, ... it will 
be . . . relieved of pressure upon its resources, . . . and can 
energize its advanced work and make it dominated by a real university 
spirit. . . . 

"Most state universities have demonstrated the value of a system of 
accredited high schools for preparing students for the university. I 



54 CO-OPERATION WITH COLLEGES 

am confident that the development of a group of smaller colleges between 
the high schools and the upper-class or professional work of the univer- 
sity would in many states bring relief to the university, enlargement of 
beneficent influence to the college, a well directed education to the stu- 
dent, and economy to the whole higher educational system of that state." 

Dean Birge of Wisconsin agrees with Dr. Babcock in recognizing 
the same trouble, and the University of Wisconsin and the best 
colleges in that State are now co-operating in the way which he 
advises as the best remedy or palliative for the trouble. The fol- 
lowing statement by Dean Birge is quoted, however, because he 
indicates at least a partial cause of the trouble. He says : 

"I don't know any state university with five thousand students that 
is striving for seven thousand. If there is anything that keeps us poor 
and makes us unhappy, it is the great number of low grade students 
we are obliged to accept. I have never known a year at the University 
of Wisconsin, and my recollection goes back forty years, when we have 
not had more students than we could fairly educate with the money we 
have had. 

"It is a situation into which we have been pushed by pressure from the 
secondary schools; and I think our experience has been duplicated in many 
other state universities. We have recently enlarged, at great expense, the 
number of courses for which we will accept students. We have done this, 
not because we wanted the students, but in response to the demands of 
the representatives of the secondary schools. The high schools have ac- 
commodated their tuition very largely to those who never expect to go 
beyond, and who have reached the limit, or passed the limit, of their 
profitable study of books. As a consequence, students come to us who 
have not been handled in a vigorous way and have not received any 
adequate intellectual training. That is the fundamental trouble that 
confronts us." 

President Pritchett in his Fourth Annual Eeport makes the 
same diagnosis as Dr. Babcock and Dean Birge: 

"The state universities represent a wide range of educational equip- 
ment and of educational standards. Nevertheless while some of them are 
still weak, all have set before themselves the ideal of a strong institu- 



CO-OPERATION WITH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES 55 

tion crowning the state system of education with true college standards 
of admission and of scholarship. Among the agricultural and mechani- 
cal colleges, however, it is almost impossible to recognize any such com- 
mon purpose. ... A feature characteristic of both the state univer- 
sities and the state colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts is the 
oversupply of students. No one can study these large institutions with- 
out realizing that even the strongest and best of them are today ham- 
pered by the presence of more students than they can really care for, and 
that their efficiency is also diminished by the fact that a considerable 
proportion of students are admitted to nearly all of them who are not 
really ready for college." 

The University of Texas has now over two thousand students 
for the regular term of enrollment — half of the number in the 
great and resourceful University of Wisconsin. There are clear 
indications of tendencies to extraordinary increase of the number 
of students in the near future. It, therefore, behooves the Uni- 
versity of Texas to ponder well this question, remembering that 
prevention is better than cure. 

Co-operation toith Theological Seminaries 

Theological seminaries are offered a method of co-operation with 
great universities that presents extraordinary advantages to the 
seminaries, and has proved to be most acceptable to the universi- 
ties. If the churches would locate their theological seminaries in 
proximity to the university campus, each seminary would be in- 
stantly relieved of the cost of instruction in academic branches, 
and could devote all its resources to the distinctive work of the 
theological school. The quality and force of the theological in- 
struction would be vastly improved, and the academic work would 
be done better than it would be possible to do it in an isolated 
seminary hampered by narrow means — insufficient for the double 
task. The students of the seminary would profit both ways. 

The university, on its part, would have the satisfaction of en- 
lightening and strengthening by its services a class of students 



56 CO-OPERATION WITH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES 

whose influence is destined to be further reaching than that of 
most men — thus fulfilling the university's chief object and aspira^ 
tion. In so far as the seminary courses of instruction meet high 
standards of scholarship and vigor, the university should make 
many of them acceptable for credits in its own appropriate depart- 
ments — history, language, philosophy, for instance. 

The ideal co-operation thus briefly sketched has been realized 
between a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church and the 
"University of Texas. 

If several large denominations would adopt the policy here rec- 
ommended, a great and difficult problem would be solved. There 
is serious ground for President Yan Hise's contention, that "theol- 
ogy should be taught in part in the universities, even in the state 
universities.''' It is true, as he says, that, "the universities cannot 
afford to ignore the science that gives unity to the world and life, 
and defines the nature of rational faith." But state universities 
in this country cannot meet his demand. It is not a theory, but 
a condition. On the contrary, there is no prejudice whatever on 
the part of the general public against the thorough and cordial 
co-operation here proposed, between a state university and a theo- 
logical seminary situated in the same locality. A very generally 
desired end would be gained in a perfectly legitimate and digni- 
fied manner, well adapted — instead of repugnant — to the predilec- 
tions of the American people. The only obstacle rests in the in- 
ertia or prejudices of the denominations themselves. But the spirit 
of the times is working in favor of this co-operative method: 
denominational prejudices are everywhere breaking down. Many 
denominations are establishing at many state universities (e. g., 
California, Kansas, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, etc.) halls or houses 
for the care and religious stimulation of university students afnli- 
iated with their churches. Their theological seminaries will follow. 



INDIVIDUAL CO-OKPEBATION- 57 

Co-operation by Individual Citizens 

i 

It may be questioned whether generous men of wealth would 

use their means wisely by contributing to a state educational in- 
stitution in the way of endowment for general purposes. It is 
probably better for the people that they should pay for the regular 
maintenance of any public enterprise vital to their own welfare. 
It is possible that a state university, or agricultural college, favored 
by large private endowment for general purposes, would be more 
poorly supported in the long run than if it had never received such 
a donation. On the other hand, a good building or land for build- 
ings would be helpful. But there are always some needs of a 
sort that legislatures are prone to disregard or deny, to which a 
private gift could be most usefully applied; for instance, the full 
endowment of a chair in a subject, the importance of which the 
general public does not appreciate; or, a building erected to be a 
model of beauty and utility, and for a purpose likely to be neg- 
lected by the dispensers of public funds. There is a particular 
example of the kind last mentioned, which has some features of 
especial interest. With it I shall conclude the — at least thought- 
ful — suggestions that have been offered in this chapter. 

In a recent issue of Science (June 26, 1912) Dr. Udden, of the 
University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, published a 
striking account of museum buildings in the United States. He 
found from the best available data that there are sixty-five build- 
ings devoted to natural history museums in this country, and that 
the cost of the buildings had been $37,232,000. He prepared a 
map, as here printed, to show graphically the location of all the 
museum buildings, and the startling vacuum in the Southwest. 
The following table gives some of the facts reported by Dr. Udden : 



58 



MUSEUMS 




INDIVIDUAL CORPORATION 59 



Number of Cost of 

Groups of States Museums Buildings 

Six Middle States! 16 $17,478,000 

Fifteen N. Central States 16 8,466,000 

District of Columbia 2 4,400,000 

Six New Eng. States 19 4,910,000 

Eleven Mt. and Pacif . States 10 1,836,000 

Two Southern States 2 142,000 



40 States and D. C 65 $37,232,000 

It was shown that not less than 21 of these museum buildings 
were built during the decade 1900-1909 ; that 36 of them, costing 
$18,958,000, had been private donations; and that 15 of them, 
costing $1,382,000, belonged to universities. 

Dr. Udden's concluding remarks speak for themselves; he says 
in part : "It is evident that the growth of our museums is largely 
parallel with the growth of our national wealth and with the 
progress of higher education in our own country. It is during 
the last fifty years that American universities have begun to pro- 
vide adequate facilities for higher education of the American 
youth. 

"The irregularities in the series show that it does not repre- 
sent the activities of auy great number of individuals. The series 
is clearly an expression of a few potent factors, acting through the 
medium of exceptional men. ... It requires a prophet's in- 
stincts and faith to make enormous investments looking to the 
awakening of living truths in the human intellect by the collec- 
tion and care of what the average man would scorn as 'dry bones/ 

"The map indicates roughly the geographic distribution and 
the course of westward travel of the scientific mind of our nation. 
It has blazed a trail from Boston via New York and Philadelphia, 
to San Francisco. It shows also the lingering effects of the world's 
most cruel war. Museums are the creations of intellect and 



60 INDIVIDUAL CORPORATION 

wealth. Our great civil war destroyed the wealth of the south. 
Hence the insignificant sum spent for museums in the south. 

"A large vacant area appears in the southwest. The straight 
lines on the map, radiating from a point in the south part of this 
space, show the shortest distances to the nearest museums, where a 
naturalist in this region can take his collection for study. The 
indices at the proximal ends of these lines point to a place where 
the great museum of the southwest should be reared, a modern 
temple of science on the Mediterranean of the Occident. Here is 
an exceptional opportunity for the exceptional man. Will he 
see it?" 



t.KfiftF Y 0F CONGRESS 



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Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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